U-505 Submarine

Voyage to Bermuda:

Capturing the U-505 was only part of the battle. Orders came in for Captain Daniel Gallery to tow the U-boat to Bermuda so the U.S. Navy could study her military secrets. The trip would cover 2,500 nautical miles — the longest tow of the war.

The lengthy voyage was not Gallery's only challenge. He had a more pressing problem: the sub was in danger of sinking! The U-505 was full of seawater, her conning tower barely above the surface at times. To make matters worse, her rudder was stuck hard to starboard, making towing very difficult.

"When it was touch and go whether the sub would remain afloat, [Commander Earl Trosino] spent hours down in the bilges, crawling around in the oily water under the engines, tracing pipelines and closing valves to make the boat watertight. He risked his life many times by squirming into inaccessible corners under the floor plates where he wouldn't have a chance to escape in case the sub started to sink. Thanks to Trosino's uncanny instinct for finding the right valves, and his total disregard of his own safety, we succeeded in saving the U-505."